The March of the Lilies

 The days that follow our annual plant sale

are usually ones of as much work as the days before.

Left-over plants are organized onto a farm wagon

that my Farmer rebuilt for me from an auction,

and then pulled up to the road as a road-side stand.

The sooner we can get it up there,

the better.

People love planting during the cool days of spring.

This means that I am continually hauling more wagon loads of plants

up to the stand.

 Of course,

I usually have a passenger or two.

 (My Lillie amongst the Lily-of-the-Valleys.)

 

 When we get to the top of the hill

and I'm panting like a race horse,

I check on the inventory...

 

 as well as seeing if the plants need water.

Any that look like they're not doing well,

get pulled off and put back in the wagon to go down to the house;

a dead or sickly plant makes an unhappy customer

who probably won't come back.

I've found that blooming plants usually sell the best.

I've made waterproof tags for each row of plants,

showing the blooms

to help the gardeners know what to expect and how to care for the plants.

I straighten rows that have been looked over...

tidying them.


Why is it so fun
to tidy plants,
but not so much the laundry?

So far we've done alright with the honesty system.

We've had a few small losses,

but we generally go up to the stand
whenever anybody has stopped and looked...

to see if there's anything in the money box.

It's rather enthralling to feel like we have our own little shop
sitting at the end of the driveway.

On the way back down,

we pick up the kid watching bees...

 

and I stop occassionally...

 

to take pictures of anything that is blooming

to improve my tags...

trying out some without flash,

and some with.

I love peonies.
I'm afraid they may be on my list of  "collectibles."

Who doesn't love the sweet little faces of

 

perennial "Forget-me-nots"?


I especially try to get pictures of flowers...

that I don't have tags for yet,
like these from a new coral bell I have...

and this 'Butterfly Blue' Scabiosa.

 

The passengers don't mind as long as I'm not too long;

if that's the case, I hear Lillie's quiet little,

"Go."

Several hours and loads later,

the kids are inside with their father...

and I continue on past dark until the job is done.

But I have to admit,

 

it is a rewarding feeling.

"There is nothing better for a man,

than that he should eat and drink,

and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.

This also I saw,

that it was from the hand of God."

Ecclesiastes 2:24

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